This invention relates generally to aquatic sport devices and, more particularly, to a two hulled motor to sail convertible recreation boat adapted to be ridden by one or more persons in the motor conversion in the manner of a motorcycle.
Bicycle-like motorized aquatic sport boats have been known for some time with many of them being single hull sport boat structures with built-in power plants. These sport boats are generally designed such that the operator will sit astride the motor compartment or stand forward or aft of the motor. Some of these sport boats perform, in higher speed ranges, like a water ski, and some others resemble a motorcycle in that they have a forward pontoon or hull directionally steerable through a handlebar or wheel driving system, and a rear hull supporting the operator and the motor. Some of these sport boats require skilled operators since they tend to capsize easily, with some excessively heavy and hard to control. Furthermore, few if any of these preexisting sport boats provide for conversion to sail drive.
It is, therefore, a principal object of this invention to provide a lightweight, easily transportable, motorized sport boat readily convertible to sail drive.
Another object is to provide such a sport boat that is quite stable in both the motorized and sail drive conversions thereof.
A further object is to provide such a sport boat powered, in the motorized conversion, by a standard outboard motor.
Still another object is to provide such a sport boat with two substantially duplicate hulls steering direction controlled by twin rudders one at the rear of each hull in both the motor and sail driven conversions.
Features of the invention useful in achieving the above objects include, in a two hulled motor to sail convertible sport boat, a pair of twin lightweight molded plastic hulls filled through much of the displacement volume thereof with foamed floatation plastic material other than bulkheads structural longitudinal members and stowage compartments therein. Two mounting pads are provided on the top of each hull one adjacent to but forward of the longitudinal mid-section of the hull and the other mounting pad about a quarter of the length of the hull forward from the rear of the hull. A motorcycle like seat handlebar and motor mount structure equipped with four mount pads that mate and fasten to the mount pads of the hulls constitutes a spacing structure for the two hulls and mounts a non-turning outboard motor in the motor driven conversion of the sport boat. Two transverse hull spacing rods with mounting pads on opposite ends are connected to the hull pads in the sail driven conversion with the forward transverse hull spacing rod mounting a sail mast, and passenger support structure is extended between the twin hulls. Twin rudders, one mounted on the rear of each hull, are interconnected by a rudder transverse rod with the steering system thereby turning the rudder in unison around their pivotal mountings in both the motor driven and in the sail driven conversions. In the motor driven conversion the steering mechanism includes two steering cables connected to opposite ends of a bell crank gear driven from a gear interconnect with steering handlebars. The steering cables for the motor driven conversion extend back and around idler pulleys to ultimately idler pulleys on each hull and then to connection to the rudder transverse rod interconnecting the rudders at the rear of each hull. In the sail conversion a tiller and rod interconnect steering system is used connected to the rudders that still employ the rudder transverse rod interconnecting the rudders at the rear of each hull .